Tangled Up in Me
by cheddzchu
Summary: Based on the song: "Tangled Up in Me" by Skye Sweetnam. BC wakes up in a rush one morning to get...where? She meets Butch along the way and things begin to unfold. Trust me, it's better than it sounds - please read!
1. The Confusion that Started it All

**Chapter 1 – The Confusion that Started it All**

**This is just something that came to me after hearing **_**Tangled Up in Me **_**by Skye Sweetnam. It's not a bad song, and I thought it would suit Buttercup & Butch...there's nothing much else to say, except that this will be a short, maybe 2 to 3 chapter fic - it was originally going to be a one-shot. Enjoy! :)**

Buttercup Utonium was awake - and late for school as well. It was, as you probably know, a sundry, commonplace event. She sat up sleepily, eyes only half-open, stumbled out of bed and into her ensuite bathroom for a shower. Yes, she had an ensuite bathroom - a hot shower was the only way to possibly wake her up in the morning. She groaned as she stepped on the cold tiles. Then she stubbed her toe on the raised ridge at the bottom of the shower.

The ground shook. Windows rattled in their cases as a deafening angry yell echoed throughout the small, cosy home. Downstairs, Bubbles neatly caught a falling sauce jar as it was shaken off its shelf. The Professor intently perused his newspaper as his surroundings vibrated violently. Blossom simply shook her head and saved her glass of orange juice from falling over.

Fifteen minutes later, Buttercup flew down the stairs, book bag in hand.

"Mornin'," she greeted her sisters at the kitchen table. "Anything quick for breakfast?" Bubbles sighed and placed a bowl of porridge in front of her dark-haired sister, earning an incredulous glare. The porridge was steaming hot, looked lovely and had been meticulously made by Bubbles - she had even put some cinnamon, Buttercup's favourite spice, into the mix to tempt her picky sister. The only thing Buttercup could be counted on to eat was ice cream.

"How am I supposed to eat _that_?" Buttercup asked, indignant. Then, without waiting for a response, "Whatever. I'm going now, seeing as there's no **real **food to eat around here." And then she was gone, the front door flapping in her slipstream.

"Um. Where's she going?" Blossom asked, curious. "There's nothing on today, right? It's a normal Sunday." Bubbles merely looked down into the abandoned porridge, crestfallen.

The Professor shrugged nonchalantly, muttering: "Anything that gets her up and actually awake is fine by me."

* * *

"Whoa, whoa, babe. What's happening?" Butch flew into her flight path, one eyebrow raised. "What's the rush?"

Buttercup screeched to a halt, a loud keening sound actually audible as she slowed. She glared at him.

"**Idiot!** Get outta my way!" Dodging around him, she continued on her relentless journey. Butch piled on the speed and soon was flying beside her - well, at least as close to beside her as he could get when she was so worked up.

"_What's the problem?_" he yelled, attempting to make himself heard over the whistle - no, roar - of the wind. "_Why are you so mad?_"

She glared at him yet again, causing him to grin self-consciously, and rolled her eyes. Using her 'duh' tone, she replied: "_I'm_ _late_!"

He looked at her, carrying her book bag, wearing a light green t-shirt and her favourite pair of black shorts. Confused, he opened his mouth to ask another question but shut it quickly when a dark green book bag suddenly came flying at his head. Eyes wide, he caught it and decided silently to just tag along to wherever she was headed. She shrugged at him as he continued flying with her, the book bag slung over his right shoulder.

They arrived at the petrol station near Townsville High School at about 8:39am. Looking at her watch, Buttercup smiled proudly and landed near a coke machine. She walked over to it and proceeded to buy herself a Vanilla Coke. She stuck her $3 in the coin slot, pressed the button and waited for the distinctive _clunk _of the bottle falling into the opening near the bottom of the dispenser.

Except for the classic problem that the coke wasn't falling. If it wasn't falling, she wouldn't get her Coke and she would have no breakfast. Frustrated, she hit the machine with the palm of her hand. Lightly, of course - it would do no good to break the machine.

30 seconds later, Buttercup was kicking the coke machine for all it was worth. Well, for more than it was worth - it was as if she was fighting Him once again. Soon enough, the front of the vending machine was a mess of twisted metal and broken plastic, smoking in an alarming way. Nonchalant, Buttercup reached through the debris, grabbed her coke and was off - there was still a good 2 minutes before she'd be late!

Butch watched her bright green streak arc through the air, completely and utterly confused. He shook his head, both eyebrows raised, and took off after her once again. His dark green streak split the air right next to the fading remainders of hers, looking for all the world like some photograph of a rainbow edited to show only shades of green.


	2. Don't Judge Me Tomorrow

**Chapter 2 – Don't Judge me Tomorrow by the Way I'm Acting Today **

**Second chapter already! I feel so...on top of things. But I'm really not – right now I'm supposed to be doing a Latin assignment, but writing this fic seemed so attractive and my brothers are having fun outside while I'm stuck in here! Feel sorry for me, people, if you can. :( Anyhow, here's Chapter 2!**

Buttercup caught sight of Townsville High far before she reached it - hawk's vision, the Professor had once called it - and frowned at the lack of activity. One glance at her watch confirmed that it was 8:45am; this was when first period should be commencing. Monday morning...then, first period must be psychology - the one lesson she _hadn't _wanted to be late for! The one and only lesson that brought her to school on time for most of the term! But...the school gates were closed and there was no one visible on the grounds. Perhaps her watch was late, and so she was now late? That had happened once before, but she hadn't gotten into trouble because all she had to do was show the teacher her watch, which had run 10 minutes late. The excuse had been so seemingly innocent - as well as easy to prove - that she had used it a few times after that. So much so that then she**had** gotten into trouble.

But then she got closer and her frown deepened, creases appearing between her furrowed eyebrows. She couldn't hear anything, either, and her hearing had been classed (by the Professor, again) as extraordinary - even compared to animals like dogs. Uhm...maybe there was some massive excursion - for the _whole _school - that she had missed out on? She landed in the grass in front of the main school building and zipped to the front window. No one was in the hallway. No lights were on, no sound could be heard, _nothing_ was happening. Not even a stray teacher, kept back by an obsession or obligation for their work, could be heard. Buttercup cocked her head to one side and tendrils of confusion began drifting into her frown.

She ignored the rustling of grass that heralded Butch's touchdown and continued staring through the window. A light tap on her shoulder and her eyes instead focussed on the reflection in the pane of glass. Butch stood behind her, smiling in a concerned way.

"BC, why are we here?" he enquired, polite for once. "You were in such a rush to reach..." He left his words hanging as her expression become annoyed.

"School, freaking heck! Whatever happened to _school_?" she almost shouted, frustration evident in her voice, eyes, expression, posture - he took them all in with a level glance.

"BC. It's _Sunday_, babe. There _is_ no school," he raised an eyebrow in an amused way, smirking at her suddenly wide eyes.

"Wait - what the heck - that means...No. Really?" He wanted to snap a photo of her disbelieving expression. Wordlessly, he pushed his sleeve back and showed her his watch - the small box inset into the watch face clearly, proudly displayed the word: "Sunday." So he was right. She seemed to deflate slightly and looked at the ground, wishing it would suddenly sprout something that would completely hide her from Butch's searching gaze. She felt her cheeks heat up, and wanted to be back in her comfy bed. Away from any guys with dark green eyes and messy black hair.

"Oh. Damn," she managed, successfully sounding indifferent. But one glance at her eyes revealed her embarrassment, and he chuckled. Once. It was enough to earn him a punch to the gut. He flew away from her, landing on his butt in a patch of grass on the lawn. Incredulous, he looked at her, eyes betraying the surprise and pain -_ Dammit_ - inflicted by her actions.

"What was that for?" he asked, tone accusatory. He was a Rowdyruff - tougher than most - and he rose to his full height, brushing off grass from his pants. She looked up, displeased at the change in prospect. One minute he was shorter than her, the next his tall frame towered over her. And he flew back to her, looking pissed off now. She blurted the first thing that came to mind.

"Don't call me _babe_." It was amazingly, stupidly cliche and yet she couldn't think of anything else . Curling her upper lip in disdain, she waited for his reply. It was, as expected, sarcastic and sharp.

"I'll call you whatever I want, _babe_. It's not like I'm the one who dragged _you _here at 8 _freaking_ AM in the morning, yelling at you and sending you death glares every 30 seconds! And I carried your freaking bag for you! So _here._" He dumped her bag at her feet, having held on to it despite being punched. "Plus, if I _weren't _here, you wouldn't have bloody well known it was _Sunday_." He spat the last word at her, and spun on his heel to stride away from her. He took off without a backwards glance. She was left there, feeling slightly miffed and kind of stupid and most of all, a little lonely without him. After all, it wasn't this often that she was at school and no one else was.


	3. Absentminded

**Chapter 3 – Absentminded**

**This is a shorter chapter, because I've tried to lengthen it but it just didn't work. OH – this story may go on for a max of maybe 8 chapters now, I've decided, because if I let it end the way I was going to , I realised how cliché it would have been. :) But now, all's well! And all's well that ends well. On to Chapter 3!**

Buttercup stood there for a few minutes, just going over what had happened between her and Butch in her head. It hadn't been exactly _nice_ - best friends as they were, Butch would get over it, but still...she hadn't been reasonable at all. Gathering her characteristic courage (and/or stubbornness), Buttercup took off for home, determined to enjoy her Sunday. The day was still young; she could go to the skate park, or drop by Mitch's house for a good gaming session on his PS3 - the possibilities were endless. Smiling in a satisfied way, Buttercup threw her bag through the window into her room and flew off to Mitch's house.

But on the way, she noticed a strange crawling feeling in the pit of her stomach. It was unfamiliar and uncomfortable, grating on her nerves and causing her to be edgier than usual. A sparrow flew past, tweeting, causing her to jump and almost zap it with her laser vision. She stopped herself just in time, eyes already glowing a dangerous red. Sighing, she landed. All thoughts of going to Mitch's house had flown out of her head - all she wanted to do was sit under this tree, wherever it was, and listen to her iPod. It was perpetually on shuffle mode, seeing as Buttercup could never stand repetition or boredom, and when the last song faded out Buttercup glanced down at the iPod to check what the next song was.

_Tangled Up in Me _

Skye Sweetnam - Noise from the Basement

...She didn't remember this song. It was one of those unwanted songs that somehow ended up on your iPod - perhaps it was on a CD that had contained a song you did really like, or you simply chose the song because it sounded alright at the time. But then, when the time came, you would always skip the song in favour of something more suiting to your mood or simply something that you liked more. This time, though, she listened. Two guitars came in, picking a melody and a countermelody. It sounded plain at first, but then came the lyrics and the drums.

_Hey! Hey! Hey! _

_Can't you see I want you by the way I push you away, yeah! _

_Don't judge me tomorrow by the way I'm acting today - _

_Mix the words up with the actions, _

_Do it all for your reaction, yeah! _

_Hey! Hey! _

_Get tangled up in me. _

Buttercup frowned down at her iPod, suddenly suspicious. When had she added this to her iPod? And since when did songs just coincidentally pop up, _somehow _just matching her current situation in life?

_Wait, _she thought. _Just wait a sec. This kid's singing about wanting someone so much that she's acting strangely. That's not me - I have __**dignity**__. So it's __**not **__reflecting what's happening right now in my life, okay? _

She had to keep telling herself that, though.

Watching the cheerful autumn day playing out around her, she didn't want to go anywhere. No one knew she was here - no one could see her, no one could bother her and that was exactly what she had needed. Leaning against her tree, she sighed and closed her eyes. There was always time for a good nap...

Her eyes fluttered shut as she relaxed into the flow of her music.

When she awoke, it was because the air had become cold and slightly damp. She could smell rain in the air. Quite unromantically, Buttercup hated the rain - it was cold and wet and made your clothes transparent. What _wasn't _there to hate about it? She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes; somehow it was easier to wake up when you were outside; and stretched a bit. Lazily, she stood and stretched a bit more, enjoying the feel of moving around again. Dinner would have to be at home tonight - she had forgotten her wallet in her book bag at home. Slowly, she rose into the air. But she took off like a rocket in the direction of food - completely forgetting her small iPod, lying at the foot of the tree, half hidden in the long green grass.


End file.
